Proofing Tools problem

[vmills]

I upgraded from a G4 to an iMac G5 recently and copied the Microsoft
applications from one computer to another. I recently realized that
spell check wasn't working and get the message that "proofing tools are
not installed". Well I did see them in the Shared Applications>Proofing
Tools folder, but I figured I'd copy from the old to new hard drive to
be safe. Ha! First it told me that I couldn't replace files because I
was using the Japanese dictionary (?!) and this with no programs open.
I restarted, turned office notifications off, restarted again, then it
started to move the files but hung with 5 seconds to go and I had to
power down the computer. I then thought I should erase the files from
the new hard drive first but the program wouldn't allow me to delete
them because it said one of them was in use (even though no MS programs
were running and OfcNot was off). Finally I was able to delete the
entire folder and began to copy the directory from the old hard drive
to new. It hung at exactly the same spot it had hung before and crashed
the computer.

Why not reinstall from the disk, you say? Because, naturally, I can't
find the disk!! So am I out of luck or do I have to buy a whole new
upgrade to get spell check to work because I organized my office and
can't find the original disk (When will I learn not to put important
things in a "safe place."?) I'd appreciate any advice on my options.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Well I did see them in the Shared Applications>Proofing
Tools folder, but I figured I'd copy from the old to new hard drive to
be safe. Ha! First it told me that I couldn't replace files because I
was using the Japanese dictionary (?!) and this with no programs open.

Yeah, it really looks like you have a problem with the install.
Since you tell us you don't have the install disk, correcting the
problem might be tricky.
I suspect that copying the app from one Mac to the other Permissions are
completely messed up. Since Office doesn't install through a .pkg,
repairing permissions o the drive might not help (it can't hurt though
and it sure would be a good thing for other issues anyway ;-) ).

On my Mac, the folder for the proofing tools as well as the proofing
tools themselves have the following settings:

owner: <me>
group: admin

owner: read write execute
group: read write execute
guests: read write

Check that it is also the case for your setup. Correcting this could
help, though bad permissions on other components of Office could also be
involved :-\

Mostly everything I've checked has the same permissions. You could
consider using an app like BatChmod http://macchampion.com/arbysoft/ to
apply these settings on all files on your Office folder. The worst that
can happen would be that you'd have to re-copy it over from the other
Mac...

Corentin